Has India become the world’s second largest producer of steel in 2021?

Let me clarify that India has already been the second largest producer of steel in the world for the last couple of years and the situation only consolidated in the current year. For the year 2021 just concluded, India witnessed an 18% yoy growth in crude steel production at 118 MT or metric tonnes. The output was about 100.6 MT in the previous year 2020 and the good news is that the steel output has pulled out of the slowdown rapidly.

Of course, China is still the world’s leader by a margin, producing 1,033 MT for the year. Even though the China steel output was lower yoy, Chinese steel output still accounted for 53% of global steel output of 1,951 MT. Among the other major steel manufacturers, according to data put out by World Steel, Japan produced 96.3 MT, the US produced 86 MT, Russia produced 72.7 MT and South Korea produced 70.6 MT. Global output was up in 2021.